Florida man arrested, guns confiscated after father-daughter landscaping team pulled AR-9 rifle for blocking driveway

A Florida prosecutor is clearing charges against a white man who pulled an AR-9 rifle at black landscapers in early July, days after local law enforcement banded together to confiscate all of his firearms. Local law enforcement arrested the man and charged him with a criminal offense.

On Wednesday, July 27, the Clearwater Police Department (CPD) and the Pinellas County Sheriff (PSCO) obtained a warrant to break into David H. Berry’s property and confiscate his weapons, including the rifle he owned with Jeremy Lee and with his 22-year-old daughter, Carrie Lee, as they completed a landscaping project across from his home on Thursday, July 7th.

After weeks of reviewing the discovery from the investigation, the Pinellas-Pasco district attorney approved the man’s arrest.

Detectives posted on Facebook that Berry was arrested on Friday, August 5th. Daniel Slaughter, the CPD chief, said he contacted the Lee family and informed them of the arrest after the man was booked.

Berry’s arrest comes days after PSCO filed a risk protection order in Pinellas County Courts identifying the 44-year-old as a threat to society.

In a social media post, the CPD wrote: “David H. Berry, 44, of 1310 Boylan Ave., has been charged with aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, following further investigation by the Clearwater Police Department and the Pinellas-Pasco Attorney’s Office Office. He was arrested by members of the CPD Special Enforcement Unit and sent to the Pinellas County Jail.”

The department said that Berry, “armed with an assault rifle, unlawfully threatened a landscaper and his daughter with violence and, according to the warrant, had reasonable fears that such violence was imminent.” The threats came after a parking fight on the street outside Berry’s home.”

Video of the confrontation was captured by the younger Lee, shared on social media and submitted to police.

“If the suspect had a problem with how someone parked, they should have called the police and let us handle it,” Slaughter said. “You don’t arm yourself with an assault rifle and threaten someone over something so trivial.”

In an interview with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Slaughter shared the previous actions taken by both organizations to strip the man of all his weapons.

Slaughter said: “We were able to get a risk protection order and I’m grateful because I don’t think this gentleman is acting rationally and I think we’re safer today than we were a week ago.”

“We were able to develop some other information that allowed us to apply for a risk protection order.”

While the chief explained that his department was pulled from other sources to back up the claims needed to secure the risk protection order, including various red flags from his past suggesting he should have the guns at the time, he didn’t explain what it was.

He mentioned that a PCSO deputy attempted to serve a subpoena on Berry, but an altercation between the police officer and the man rendered the effort unsuccessful.

Berry served less than five hours in custody and was released from prison after posting $5,000 bail, the Tampa Bay Times reports.